As a Texans fan, i'm loving the excitement, but I'm not ready to put us at #1 in the overall standings.

I am not looking forward to playing Green Bay or Baltimore at home in weeks 6-7. I don't care what Green Bay look like right now, that is just a formidable offense. Baltimore looks downright nasty. And Baltimore has had Houston's number for years. I think that's a game we lose. I hope I'm wrong.

I feel pretty good about week 8.

At this point, I think the Bears, Lions and Patriots away could all be losing games. I have more confidence against Chicago and Detroit, but I will never count out New England. Not until Brady and/or Belichick are out of business.

Texans have a good playoff shot. I think we have a good chance at a spot in the AFC Championship. I'm NOT convinced we're Superbowl-bound.

/superbowl predictions after week 1 were San Fran/Baltimore/not yet willing to call that a bad prediction

WaywardSon:Baltimore looks downright nasty. And Baltimore has had Houston's number for years. I think that's a game we lose. I hope I'm wrong.

Eh, the Ravens and Texans are both playoff teams- at least, they are at this point in the season, barring injuries and/or those weird nosedives NFL teams occasionally take when they start believing their own pres. And it's really hard to beat a team twice in the same year. It's almost impossible to beat a divisional opponent three times.

A Week 7 loss is tough, but you pretty much forget about it by Wednesday. You say things like "well, we lost to the Ravens. You know what? There's no shame in that, they're pretty farking good. We've got a bye week, and then the Bills- let's get back on track." Playoff losses hurt worse. If I could give you the choice, right now, to have the Texans beat the Ravens in one game and lose in one, are you taking the win in Week 7, or the playoffs? More importantly, which one would you prefer to lose?

Olympic Trolling Judge:Are the Bengals too damn high? Seems like they are, considering who they've beaten so far (CLE, @WSH, @JAX). And they'll have a few more chances to buff their stats before the bye. Next week they get the LOLphins, then their annual field trip to the Factory of Sadness, and finally a home game against a surprisingly meh Steelers team. I don't think we'll know if these guys are for real until mid-November.

6-2 week 88-8 week 17That's been my prediction since the schedule has been released.

Although the offense is surprisingly good. Really good. However the defense is surprisingly bad. Hopefully Zimmer can put something together. The resigining of Chris Crocker was a good move. The team is one defensive super-star from being a legit contender.Dalton's Passer rating is about 4th in the league.Cincinnati's defense is about 4th worst in Defensive Passer rating.

Di Atribe:I usually make fun of at least one team in the icons. I might have to change it up this year, depending on how the Loins do. I also have a cute little sheep I use for the Rams sometimes. We'll have to see who turns out to be the worst.

bionicjoe:Di Atribe: I usually make fun of at least one team in the icons. I might have to change it up this year, depending on how the Loins do. I also have a cute little sheep I use for the Rams sometimes. We'll have to see who turns out to be the worst.

CognaciousThunk:bionicjoe: Di Atribe: I usually make fun of at least one team in the icons. I might have to change it up this year, depending on how the Loins do. I also have a cute little sheep I use for the Rams sometimes. We'll have to see who turns out to be the worst.

ESPN "can't figure out how AZ keeps winning". All their pundits keep saying that.It takes 23 yards of offense per point scored. No one else is above 20.Their QB Passer rating is low, but it's still 13 points better than their opposition.

ESPN is an NFL wasteland of morons trying to figure out who is good based on useless volume stats. You analyze the NFL on a per play basis.

That's what I picked, honestly. I had us at 2-2 at the bye, so I'm on track to be correct (got the Giants & Seahawks games mixed up, but got the Bucs & Bears right). I don't think I need to explain to anyone why I'm not really feeling confident with that call at the moment.

Gonz:. If I could give you the choice, right now, to have the Texans beat the Ravens in one game and lose in one, are you taking the win in Week 7, or the playoffs? More importantly, which one would you prefer to lose?

I'm with you. A loss to a decent team in the next few games would be GOOD for the Texans. Hell, a loss to the Ravens might be a prelude to a playoff game with them, and I'd feel comfortable doing a lose one win one with the Ravens, so long as the second game was the win in the playoffs.

Sure, the Texans don't deserve first place status with the early easy games, and I certainly don't envy Jets fan this week, but the Jets and the Broncos and even the Titans weren't supposed to be pushover teams when the schedule was put down.

skrame:oh_please: skrame: oh_please: I love that the Chargers are flying under the radar.

FTPR: The Chargers look good, but they were 3-1 last year, too. (Fox)

They're not under the radar; they're just going through their annual ritual.

Except they have an actual defense this year.

I don't doubt you; I haven't seen them play this year other than a few game highlights. Good luck to your team, unless they happen to play the Bears.

Lets be honest. The Chargers will crash and burn half way through the season. It's tradition. The Bears will improve, make the playoffs and be embarrassed in the first game. My Vikes will either make it to the NFC Championship, where I they'll make sure to lose thanks to a dozen fumbles and ints, OR they won't even make the playoffs.

Well with GB in their predicament, I'm looking forward to them Unleashing their Playbook. Their conservative playing squeaking-by is great for the post season shock & awe, but at this rate they won't get there!

Lord Jubjub:NetOwl: spiderpaz: ATRDCI: spiderpaz: Texans, Falcons and Cards are all pretenders. Cards are the only of those that have played serious opponents but they've scraped by. In about 10 games they'll all be closer to the middle of the pile than the top.

Okay then, play head coach. How would you beat Houston? What would you attack?

The same way they lost several games last season. They're the same team.

I'll pass your comment along to starting quarterback T.J. Yates and whoever is filling in for Andre Johnson. Last year's team was almost good enough to win a playoff game in Baltimore with a third string quarterback.

So far, this year's Texans team has dominated both sides of the ball. Yeah, Tennessee "outgained" them by running up some yards against the prevent D when they were down by 31, but that's not saying much.

They probably won't win the Super Bowl, but I'm going to enjoy them this year every bit as much as I enjoyed the Sage Rosenfels Era and the years of Dom Capers and David Carr.

They probably won't win the Super Bowl? No team is a lock for the SB, but the Texans have had the chance to play only one true quality opponent, on the road, with a quarterback known to cause the Texans problems, and they still get a 20-point lead.

Too bad the Jets game next Monday might still not be considered a proper test of the Texans.

/Manning is Manning//Denver is a tough place to win///The Green Bay and Chicago games are when it gets real

A couple of things. I like what the Cards have done on Defense, and yeah, there is an arguement to who the #1 team is.

Covering things here in Houston -- This team is scary, and they haven't played their best game offensively yet. The right side of the line is still a bit of a mess, so the running game has taken off like it should have. Arian Foster is on pace for 400+ carries, and there is some concern in this town, as the history of NFL backs shows when a guy gets past that number in a season, he's looked broken down since.

JJ Watt is an absolute beast. He's a 3-4 defensive end that has 7.5 sacks in 5 games. A DE in that scheme isn't supposed to be doing what he's doing. They are meant to fill the gaps while the rushing linebackers tally up the sacks. He dominates inside and outside. At some point they will double him on the edge, freeing up Barwin and Reed. And the pass defense has been outstanding. I ragged on Kareem Jackson for being so bad, but will eat crow and say he's played great the first 4 games.

Schaub has really managed the offense well. He hasn't made the mistakes he's been known for, where at least twice a game you can expect really forced throws that lead to picks or near picks.

The run defense inside has looked a little soft, but that comes with the type of defense Wade Phillips runs.

The biggest concern still is the right side of the line, and their run blocking. It's been bad, and Arian and Ben Tate haven't looked comfortable and confident in finding holes.

IMO the Texans are the most complete of the three undefeated teams. The stretch where they face the Packers, Ravens, Bills and Bears will be tough. But this city is abuzz, and it'll be great if they do make it to New Orleans, as I already have my plans locked in to be there.

Linky to bigger. Great big thanks to RminusQ for doing the numbers for me. He's really nice.

So the higher you are, the better your actual win/loss record. The farther to the right you are, the tougher the teams you have played. So Indy has played the best teams so far. It's only been 4 weeks, though. The farther we get into the season, the more useful this one will be. It answers the "Yeah, but who have they beaten?" question.

While the Cowboys did play abysmally last night, they are tied with the Packers, Pats, & Jets. What does it mean?

[i.imgur.com image 500x280]

Yeah

It means FOOTBALL WOOOOOO!!!!, but not much else. MOAR GRAPH!!! MOAR!!!

digistil:skrame: oh_please: skrame: oh_please: I love that the Chargers are flying under the radar.

FTPR: The Chargers look good, but they were 3-1 last year, too. (Fox)

They're not under the radar; they're just going through their annual ritual.

Except they have an actual defense this year.

I don't doubt you; I haven't seen them play this year other than a few game highlights. Good luck to your team, unless they happen to play the Bears.

Lets be honest. The Chargers will crash and burn half way through the season. It's tradition. The Bears will improve, make the playoffs and be embarrassed in the first game. My Vikes will either make it to the NFC Championship, where I they'll make sure to lose thanks to a dozen fumbles and ints, OR they won't even make the playoffs.

I'll believe the Chargers are for real if and when they beat the Broncos.

kbotc:Nadie_AZ: eddievercetti: Talondel: Hopefully ESPN will keep disrespecting the Cardinals all the way to a 7 and 0 start.

It's ESPN, they'll hate the Cards even if they go to the Super Bowl

True.

Then again, it is the Cardinals... ESPN is hedging their bets that the Cardinals will drop the ball against the Rams or Seahawks in a stroke of Kolb-ism.

So farking true. The channels are always biased against the Cards.

Remember when Cris Collingsworth dismissed the Cardinals as being a fluke to qualify for the playoffs and then the Cards went to the frickin' Super Bowl against Pittsburgh that year and gave us one of the best SB games ever?!

Collingsworth, as best as I can recall, never retracted his comments about the Cards not deserving it.